In an extraordinary reversal, Labor has today introduced a bill to make it mandatory for Immigration and Australian Border Force staff and contractors to report incidents of child abuse.

This is the same Labor that voted against a very similar amendment by Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young to the Migration Amendment (Regional Processing Arrangements) Bill 2015 in June. And it’s the same party that voted for the Australian Border Force Act in May, which made it a crime to report child abuse and rape in offshore detention facilities run by Australia.

Labor has had little to say about the litany of abuse that has emerged from Nauru and PNG, apparently terrified that if they suggest asylum seekers might be entitled to the most basic security while they are in our care, the Coalition will be able to portray them as soft on refugees. But since the Syrian refugee crisis, Labor has felt emboldened to allow the smallest of gaps between itself and the Coalition on this issue. And now that Tony Abbott is gone, perhaps it feels it can widen that gap without fear of being savaged by the man who “stopped the boats”.

But that says much about Labor and its timidity on asylum seekers. It is one thing to endorse offshore processing and boat turnbacks; it is quite another to stay silent in the face of widespread evidence of child abuse, rape and assaults on women and children under Australia’s care. Political calculation might support the former, but only a degrading amorality could support the latter. In that context, today’s bill should be seen as a political stunt.